TIDBITS OF COAL
SERENDIPIDLY, COAL RECENTLY unearthed in two different contexts, the London Review of Books and SiriusXM “Radio Classics.” Here are tidbits about both, together with my usual Internet mining. Coal and … Continue reading
TWENTY-SIX MILES ACROSS THE SEA, A PBY HAS TRANSPORTED ME
ACTUALLY IT WAS a bit farther, around 65 miles from the harbors of St. Thomas to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The PBY Catalina was flown by Antilles Airboat, with even … Continue reading
FORMULA ONE FUEL TIDBITS PART 2
YESTERDAY, IT WAS SUGGESTED that Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification from last month’s Hungarian GP was not unrelated to Formula One rocket fuels of the late 1980s until 1991. Today in Part … Continue reading
FORMULA ONE FUEL TIDBITS PART 1
FORMULA ONE IS SERIOUS about its racing fuels. Ask Sebastian Vettel, whose Aston Martin-Mercedes got disqualified from second at last month’s Hungarian GP for not having the required 1.0 liter … Continue reading
ARLES TIDBITS
LYDIA DAVIS DOESN’T call them “tidbits,” though her article One French City,” London Review of Books, August 12, 2021, is a perfect example. Davis begins her article with “What follows … Continue reading
CELEBRATING ORNATENESS
HAVING RECENTLY CELEBRATED architectural minimalism, let’s explore the other extreme. The Discoverer Blog is an entertaining website, with lots of helpful information on travel (whether real or of the armchair … Continue reading
DIEGO RIVERA—ART PRODIGY, MURALIST, AND POLITICAL ACTIVIST
MEXICAN MURALIST DIEGO RIVERA briefly appeared earlier at SimanaitisSays as the mentor of aviatrix/muralist Aline Rhone. Her Roosevelt Field 1938 mural celebrated aviation from 1909 to 1927, with more than … Continue reading
BABBLING BABY BATS
WHAT WITH COVID and all, bats have had particularly bad press of late. However, science comes to a rehabilitation of their reputation: It turns out the greater sac-winged bat, Saccopteryx … Continue reading
MUDLARKING—ITS PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
A MUD LARK IS defined by Merriam-Webster as “a person who grubs in mud (as in search of stray bits of coal, iron, rope). specifically: an urchin who grubs for … Continue reading
THE ART OF IMPERIAL AIRWAYS
FROM 1924 TO 1939, Imperial Airways linked the British Empire during what in retrospect is termed aviation’s Golden Age. It was a golden age of aviation graphics too, as displayed … Continue reading
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